an AWESOMETALKS program

Thank you to all of you who have visited my blog over the last couple of years. As those of you following my work know, I am currently in the middle of writing a book with my writing partner John Elliott as well as possibly turning it into a documentary. When things happen fast, you need to go with the flow. So due to this, my blog output has ground to a crawl and for that I apologize.

However, when I find something that is historically interesting, or those that have great information find me, I like to pass it along to you as fast as I can. Case in point is a website about the Hindenburg and the other great airships of the 20’s and 30’s.

The site is run by Dan Grossman out of Atlanta, Georgia and he wrote the following note to me regarding an article I authored called “D-LZ 129 HINDENBURG . . . JUST THE FACTS, MA’AM”!”.

“Barry. You have done a great job of presenting the basic facts about the Hindenburg for people who want a short, accurate summary. But for readers who want more information (photos, deck plans, flight schedules, flight operations, etc.), would you be willing to post a link to: http://www.airships.net/hindenburgat the end of your posting, for people who might not read all the comments?

As the Hindenburg and the other great airships are not my specialty, but still hold wonderful historical interest for me, I recommend Dan’s website for those wanting to know much more about this subject.

I thought it would be fun to let you know what the TOP TWELVE (12) articles are from my blog based on statistics gathered from your visits during the last 4-1/2 months. Many of my articles have been very well received while others, not so much. Oh well, can’t win them all.

NOTE: For those of you who don’t know, I keep a summary of all the DID YOU KNOW postings and have created pages for them. So if you don’t want to go through each and every posting, you can see the exact copies of the articles under “DID YOU KNOW (Parts 1 – 10) Abraham Lincoln” and “DID YOU KNOW (Parts 11-14) Abraham Lincoln”. Both are linked here in this article.

Basic facts about the D-LZ 129 Hindenburg Zeppelin

D-LZ 129: D-LZ = Deutsche Luftschiff Zeppelin which translates into German Airship Zeppelin. The number 129 refers to the design number, not the sequential number of ships built. The Graf Zeppelin was LZ 127. The next number LZ 128 was designed but never built.

Named after: Paul von Hindenburg, the recently deceased ex-President of Germany. Another name considered was the Hitler, but the Nazis had concerns about the potential negative association should the Zeppelin ever crash. So Hitler’s name was withdrawn in favor of naming the zeppelin the Hindenburg.

Owners & Operators: Deutsche Zeppelin Reiderei.

Manufacturer: Luftschiffbau Zeppelin.

Manufactured: 1932-1936.

Launched: On March 4, 1936 from Friedrichshafen, Germany.

Destroyed: On May 6, 1937 at Lakehurst, New Jersey at completion of 1st trans-Atlantic flight of the 1937 season.

Fact: The Hindenburg, along with her sister ship the D-LZ 130 Graf Zeppelin II, were the largest man-made objects ever to fly!

Length: 803.8 feet (almost 2-1/2 football fields long).

Diameter: 135.1 feet (13-1/2 stories tall).

Weight: 130,000 lbs

Gas Capacity: 7,062,100 cubic feet of hydrogen gas.

Piece of seared duralumin girder from the Hindenburg

Girders: Over 13 miles (21kms) of Duralumin girders were used to build the Hindenburg

Fact: The Hindenburg, flew for one full year in 1936 prior to its destruction in May of 1937.

Passenger Capacity in 1936: 62 passengers

Passenger Capacity in 1937: 72 passengers

Number of Passengers and Crew on Final Flight: 36 passengers, 61 crew (the flight was used as a training flight for crew who would work on other Zeppelins later that year hence the larger number of crew on board).

Hindenburg as seen from near the hanger May 6, 1937

Number of Dead: 13 passengers, 22 crew, 1 ground crew = 36 fatalities

There are many more facts that I could add here, but for now, this is a good start.

In the coming weeks I will be including entries from a number of historical events including much more on Abraham Lincoln. However, you will also see information on the era of the Great Airships (such as the Hindenburg), the great Ocean Liners (such as the Titanic), the space program of NASA, and even some fascinating unique facts about Jack the Ripper. Please let me know some of the subjects that you would like to know more about.

I usually don’t post the ‘well known historical facts’ as there are vast amounts of this information written in books and found online. However, I do like to bring to you the ‘little known stuff’ from history. Sometimes they are small and seemingly insignificant, but they are all part of the historical record.

So stay tuned. Give me your feedback and let me know what you would like to know more about.